The “Meow Wolf-like” experience in Kansas City, Atlas9, has taken some flack for their use of A.I. in their attraction. Some A.I. use is obvious — your photo is taken during your “agent onboarding” and then your image is used later in the attraction to put you in a movie poster.
While I hate “A.I. Slop” as much as the next person, I think this type of use of A.I. seems fine enough. Disney added a similar feature to Epcot’s Spaceship Earth decades ago, though using the technology available back then, the result was not quite as nice…
This post is not about their use of A.I., or the complaints about it. Instead, this post is about the people you encounter while visiting Atlas9.
First, there is a live show every hour, alternating between the Jazz Club…
…and Auditorium 9.
These shows feature multiple performers and really add a lot to the experience.
But Atlas9 does more than that.
Each time we have visited Atlas9, we have encountered into various actors (apparently known as “ambient characters”, per a reference on a behind-the-scenes Instagram video) roaming around. The storyline of the place is that these entities have escaped from the movies that were showing at this theater when the Holomax projector system was first brought online in 1995.
The characters we have seen the most are these orange haired gals that seem travel in packs of three:
I do not think these characters speak, though they sometimes will offer you candy from a pizza box or black briefcase.
Which is not creepy at all.
From watching various videos on YouTube, we have seen there are quite a few others that have been seen inside the attraction. We saw this one for the first time during a short stop on our way back home from Branson:
…and we finally encountered these “beep, boop” characters, that only speak in beeps and boops…
And, of course, the actual staff of the place — from the “agents” that help you with your “training”…
…or the random “theater employees” you might run into while they are cleaning mirrors…
…as well as workers at the concession stand, Speakereasy bar and Splice Bros. Pizza. Atlas9 feels more alive than what we encountered at our three different Meow Wolf visits.
So, kudos to Atlas9. While they may take flack for their use of A.I., they also make use of actual people. (Well, at least we think most of them are people. Still unsure on the origins of the orange hairs…)
Until next time…